June 27, 2002

Jury mulling fate of kidnap suspect

KINGMAN - William Michael Savory will have to wait another day to find out whether or not he becomes a free man.

Savory has been in custody in the Mohave County Jail in Kingman since his arrest almost 18 months ago for allegedly helping to kidnap, beat, and slit the throat of 35-year-old Lisa Bracamonte.

After two and one-half days of testimony in Division 6 of the Mohave County Superior Court, the lawyers rested their case late Thursday afternoon, and shortly after retiring to select a foreman and begin deliberations, the 12-member jury opted to call it a day and resume deliberations this morning.

Defense Attorney Randolph Wolfson of Bullhead City continued the defense case with testimony from former Mohave County

Medical Examiner Dr. Donald Schieve who produced blood samples that both the prosecution and defense stipulated were drawn from the victim the day she was brought into the hospital: February 23, 2001.

Schieve claimed the blood was drawn some "11 hours" after the victim was first discovered and contained "a fairly low level" of methamphetamine.

Bracamonte admitted in her testimony on Tuesday that she was a "recovering methamphetamine addict", but claimed that she had not taken the drug within four days prior to the attack.

It was a discovery the defense used to support their contention that Bracamonte was too high on meth the night she was assaulted and dumped in marsh off Route 66 to accurately remember what happened to her or who was involved.

They also used it in their claim that three unknown men - and not Savory-drugged Bracamonte after picking her up while she was hitchhiking.

"What really happened is: three white guys picked her up, beat the living snot out of her, raped her, and left her in a Topock marsh,"

Wolfson told the jury during his 90-minute closing statement, during which he choked up as he described the victim's ordeal.

As with his earlier presentations, Wolfson employed a computerized projector to illustrate his argument that the prosecution presented no evidence against his client, but took it a step further Thursday when he pulled out an electric shaver and began shaving off his goatee that he said he began growing just for the demonstration when he took the case.

"Now you see it, now you don't," he said, alluding to what he said was the evidence against Savory. "Just like my chin right now, my client is clean."

"The only thing you have left (of the beard) is what you remember," he continued. "What does Lisa Bracamonte remember?"

The victim said she was afraid for her children, who her assailants said would be killed if she talked, he said, and when Mohave County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) investigators "gave her the gift" of Savory and the other suspects, Bracamonte went along.

He also reiterated how investigators in the case failed to collect certain evidence from the scene that he claimed might have been able to eliminate his client as a suspect.

In his closing statements to the jury, Deputy County Attorney Greg McPhillips described the 29-year-old Savory as the victim's "friend," and issued a straightforward narrative describing how Bracamonte thought she was going with Ricky Duralia and Sam Bersane in Bersane's Camaro to Savory's house.

"Billy Savory gets into the crowded backseat . . . she's struggling bad to get out . . . she feels Sam choking her. . . she feels a poking in her arm. . ..she hears Bill Savory say, 'She's gotta die,'" said McPhillips. "She wakes up in the marsh. She is in pain. Her throat's been cut."

All the witnesses, he said, "corroborated Lisa's testimony."

As for the so-called uncollected evidence, McPhillips said, "It's all a red herring."

"What Billy Savory wants you to do is be angry with the police," he said.

Both sides urged the seven woman, five man jury to "not leave their common sense at the door."

After issuing final instructions, it was 5:30 p.m. before the jury retired to select a foreman and begin deliberation.

Charged with attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault,

Sam Bersane, 21, of Temple City, Calif., who owned the 1988 Camaro in which the attack on Bracamonte allegedly started, was sentenced earlier this year to 27 years in prison on the same charges.

[Note:  The jury found Mr. Savory was  not guilty of attempted murder in this case but was held for sentencing on the jury's guilty verdict of kidnapping/aggravated assault].